On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Greg Skinner wrote:
> What I'm suggesting is that despite the fact that ICANN may have
> unclear origins, people are willing to go along with it because they
> believe it can work. So in a sense ICANN's legitimacy stems from the
> trust that people have placed in it.
Sure, ICANN can work, in that, yes, it is theoretically possible to create
a corporation and transfer IANA's functions to it. In fact, the practical
reality is that if we drop ICANN then we are taking a giant step backwards.
It would delay things for at least a year.
The other practical reality is that, yes, ICANN's legitimacy derives
from trust -- BUT it doesn't have that trust from the Internet community.
Those of us who are not extremists of one sort or another want ICANN to
succeed. However, that is not going to happen unless the ICANN board
comes to understand that its legitimacy can only come from the Internet
community, and that requires trust on both sides. The ICANN board must
trust the Internet community sufficiently to open up its processes to the
light of day. It must trust in the intelligence and good sense of the
Internet community as a whole.
If the ICANN board does this, if it makes its proceedings open to all,
then it has the chance of earning the trust of the Internet community,
and acquiring the legitimacy that you seem to think that it already has.
At this point, ICANN is simply something created out of secret processes
and imposed on us. When the ICANN board opens up its proceedings and
shows us that it understands what it has to do, when it earns our trust,
then it will have legitimacy.
--
Jim Dixon Managing Director
VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net tel +44 117 929 1316
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Member of Council Telecommunications Director
Internet Services Providers Association EuroISPA EEIG
http://www.ispa.org.uk http://www.euroispa.org
tel +44 171 976 0679 tel +32 2 503 22 65
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